Book Review: Once Upon A Dream by Liz Braswell

Author: Liz Braswell
Series: Twisted Tales #2
Publisher: Disney Press
Release Date:April 5th 2016
My Rating: 3 cups
Source: Netgalley
Blurb (from Goodreads):

What if the sleeping beauty never woke up? Once Upon a Dream marks the second book in a new YA line that reimagines classic Disney stories in surprising new ways.

It should be simple--a dragon defeated, a slumbering maiden, a prince poised to wake her. But when said prince falls asleep as soon as his lips meet the princess's, it is clear that this fairy tale is far from over.

With a desperate fairy's last curse infiltrating her mind, Princess Aurora will have to navigate a dangerous and magical landscape deep in the depths of her dreams. Soon she stumbles upon Phillip, a charming prince eager to join her quest. But with Maleficent's agents following her every move, Aurora struggles to discover who her true allies are, and moreover, who she truly is. Time is running out. Will the sleeping beauty be able to wake herself up?

*Disclaimer: I received an ecopy of this book from Netgalley and Disney Press in exchange for an honest review. This does not influence my opinion of this book or my rating in any way.

Sleeping Beauty has always been one of my Top 3 Disney animated movies. As a little girl, I remember being captivated by Aurora's relationship with the animals, but also by the three fairy godmothers. One thing I've always been attracted to, that I don't think I've ever told anyone before, was Maleficent's raven. I had a soft spot for that animal, even though he did ultimately belong to Maleficent, making him one of the bad guys, but he was a pretty bird. I was always sad when he ended up being turned into stone. Anyway...

I was very excited to see how the author would remake this story and make the villain win. There have been many remakes of the story, but I was really curious to see if this book could match the original movie's lavish world, with the medieval-looking drawings and details.

I have to say, I was a bit disappointed with the first quarter or so of the book. The plot was slow-paced and the language used made me think the book was intended for middle-grade aged readers. Which is not bad, except I was expecting more, for some reason.

I have to say though, I'm glad I pushed through and kept reading. Around the middle of the book, the story started picking up and it became the dark story I hoped it would be. It touched on some really delicate themes, like suicide and child abandonment, and I'm really happy the story went there. It was also really interesting to see that Aurora/Rose isn't shown as the delicate princess with the pretty voice and gorgeous hair that the movie shown, but she's more than that. She basically becomes the hero in this story, and I liked that very, very much.

I can't say I liked Prince Phillip very much. Probably because we see him mostly from Aurora's perspective, and he is yet another person who hid things from her. Even so, I was expecting more from the daring prince who faced a dragon for a girl he didn't even know.

The world-building was good. I liked how the story is told from the lens of a war won by the villain. Unlike the previous book in the series, I felt like Maleficent really was a villain in this story. She was cruel, she was ruthless, and she was deranged. Far more dark than the movie allows the audience to see. I still feel that, for a story where the villain wins at first, there were so few scenes told from her perspective.

I did enjoy this book more than the other one, however I think the first part of the book, as I said before, could have been a bit more fast paced, and maybe used a more mature language. I saw that the next book in the series is about Beauty and the Beast, and I can't even explain how much I want to read about that library that Beast has in his castle. So I'll definitely read the next book in this series.

Release Blitz: Welcome to Sortilege Falls by Libby Heily

Wednesday Chatter #16: Parents & YA a.k.a The Trope I Want To See Go Away

Wednesday Chatter is a weekly feature at Ruby's Books where we'll be talking about anything and everything related to books and reading. Click here if you want to see what we talked about in the previous weeks


WARNING: Some bad words might be used in the following post. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Happy Wednesday folks! Today I want to talk to you about a trend (trope more like it) in most of the YA books I've read recently: idiotic parents.

I think I can count on one hand the books that I've read in the past 6 years of my blogging life, that didn't have idiot parents. And I'd still have fingers left. That's sad. And I want to know: why is it a thing?

I know authors have started, in the last few years, to try to make their stories more realistic and write about the various fact of life. Fact No. 1: Not all parents are great parents or even great people. Fact No.2: Not all parents are idiotic creatures, that deserve a beating for bringing a poor soul into the world, when their brain can't handle more than breathing and walking at the same time. Still, most of the books I've read recently are filled with this trope. 

I want to read about responsible parents, parents that don't abuse their children, that don't abandon them, that raise them in a healthy, positive environment. I remember reading about Molly Weasley, and being absolutely thrilled that she and Arthur were great parents, even to kids that weren't their children, like Harry and Hermione.

I also feel that, and no offence to anyone here, it's an easy way to explain why the main character, male or female, is having various issues. It's the easiest way, in my opinion, because the parents are idiots and so the teenager doesn't have healthy examples of good, responsible adults around him, and so he/she has issues. Or he/she becomes the hero of the story because the adults are imbeciles.

Take a book that I loved, The Duff. Bianca had the worst parents ever. Her mom was off who-knows-where, presenting her book, her dad was an alcoholic that also turned violent and mean when drunk, so of course she found solace in Wesley. It makes sense that she chose a seemingly destructive path, because she was primed for it by her parents. Same with A Midsummer's Nightmare, which again shows a teenage girl acting out and behaving in a self-destructive way, since her dad was mostly behaving like a teenager himself, and her mom was a bitter woman, that hated her ex more than she loved her own child.

Firstlife, another book that I liked, showed the heroine Ten how not only was she abandoned by her parents, she was locked up by them in an asylum. The other adults in that book are equally idiotic, what with the parents of one girl in the asylum selling her out to the highest bidder. Of course the teenagers then become misfits. And of course some of them become heroes in the end, despite what they went through and how they were let down by the people they should've trusted the most.

On the other side, there are those books that show parents supporting their children, offering them a loving, caring, healthy environment in which they have a chance at a normal life.

Take Girl Against The Universe for instance. Maguire has a supportive mom, one that is trying to help her daughter, and a patient step-father that is really trying. Maguire and her step-dad actually have a beautiful scene that had me sobbing, it was so perfect and heart-breaking at the same time. And, yes, I know Jordy has idiotic parents too, but at least he can count on his therapist to not be an idiot. 

I am realizing I may be using the word "idiot" too much in this post, but nothing else fits. Moving on.

I'm going to mention Mr. and Mrs. Weasley again, just because. I think we can all agree that they were perfect parents. Sure, they didn't have money to support their family as much as they wanted, but that doesn't mean they didn't love their kids, or that they somehow ignored one in favor of the other. I'll never forget movie-Molly Weasley telling Bellatrix "Not my daughter, you bitch!", not ever. That scene, is one of my top 5 scenes in the entire movie franchise.

Even Rose Hathaway from the Vampire Academy series had great parents, in their own way. They weren't perfect by any means, but they did help their daughter. I think ultimately, in this instance, we see Janine and Abe from Rose's perspective, and we all know how hotheaded and proud Rose can be sometimes. So yes, we are shown that Janine is a cold mom at first, but seeing things from the "our only purpose is to serve the Moroi" code that all of the dhampirs are living by, I can't really blame Janine for being the perfect soldier. Dimitri also had a great mom, and a really funny grandmother. Kirova is also an adult that I always end up respecting, mostly because she let Rose get back to the Academy, for a second time, to finish her education.

I know most YA book are written for teenagers, but am I the only one hoping to see good adults in these books? What do you think? Are you as tired as I am by this trope, or on the contrary, do you think adults have no business in YA and they should be shown as mostly being useless/in the way of the MCs?

Comic Book Tuesday #11: Star Trek Manifest Destiny #1

Author: Mike Johnson, Ryan Parrott
Series: Star Trek: Manifest Destiny #1
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Release Date: 28 Jun 2016
My Rating:4 cups
Source: Netgalley
Blurb (from Goodreads):

This all-new adventure is set at the edge of explored space, as Captain Kirk and the crew of the Starship Enterprise come face to face with a new Klingon threat... with the fate of the galaxy at stake.

*Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of this book from Netgalley and IDW Publishing in exchange for an honest review. This does not influence my rating or opinion of the book in any way.

It's always an interesting experience for me to read a Star Trek comic book. I was browsing the newest books available for reviewing on Netgalley, when Manifest Destiny caught my eye.

I'm actually happy I requested this book. The art is pretty much similar to the one used in the Star Trek/Green Lantern comic, only a tad bit darker. The panels were, as with the previously mentioned comic, not crowded with characters of dialogue, and it wasn't hard to follow the story. One thing that I'd like, though, and it will sound strange as hell, is to not have the drawings try to look too much like the actors playing the characters in the movies. I know, it sounds strange, and it may be a me-thing, but I would like to see how the artist sees these characters outside of the influence of the movies.

The story is pretty fast paced and the strangest thing happened while I was reading it, in the sense that I wanted to read more from the villain's POV than from the good guys'. Does that sound strange? I felt like the villain was very well portrayed and he was pretty interesting, and I wanted to find out why he was so bad, bordering on psychotic sometimes.

The weirdest thing happened though. I was so caught in the story, that when I finished reading that last page, I actually thought maybe the file downloaded wrong. There's a cliffhanger at the end, and it took me a while to realize that I read just the first issue of the story, which made me want to cry, because I wanted to know what happens with the heroes and with the villain, who dies and who lives.

All in all, a good story, and I can't wait to get my hands on the entire volume and find out how the story ends.

Early Book Review: The Devil In Disguise by Cynthia Eden

Author: Cynthia Eden
Series: Bad Things #1
Audience: +18
Publisher: Hocus Pocus Publishing, Inc.
Release Date: June 28th 2016
My Rating: 4 cups
Source: Netgalley
Blurb (from Goodreads):

Don’t make the devil angry…

Luke Thorne loves having one hell of a good time. As the ruler of every dark creature to walk the earth, he certainly has more than a bit of a bad side. He lives for danger and isn’t the type to lose his heart—mostly because he doesn’t have one. Then she walks into his life.

Mina James is seduction in the flesh, a perfect temptation that the devil himself couldn’t pass up. Too late, Luke realizes he’s let a real siren into his life, a woman who is bent on using his dark powers to free herself from hidden enemies. Since Luke isn’t the type of man to be used, he should walk away from her, but…something about Mina draws him close.

Soon he’s realizing that she isn’t who she appears to be. Not dark and cold, but burning red hot. Mina is a woman fighting for her life—and the Lord of the Dark suddenly finds himself in an unlikely role…hero. Luke isn’t going to let her enemies destroy Mina. He will fight heaven and hell to keep her. But in the end, the secrets they both carry may just rip apart a love that should never have been…

There are Bad Things in the world…very, very bad. Are you ready for them?

*Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC of this book from Netgalley and Hocus Pocus Publishing, Inc. in exchange for an honest review. This does not influence my opinion of the book or my rating in any way.


In the last two weeks or so I've been having the need to read some urban fantasy, which is when I stumbled across this book on Netgalley. Between the cover, the blurb and my recent obsession with the TV show Lucifer, I just had to give this book a try. And I'm so, so happy I tried it out.

I really loved the premise of this book. The ruler of all things dark is brought to his knees my a single, little siren. It was interesting to see the inner conflict that Luke has. He's been brought up to believe there's nothing good about him, that he can basically destroy anything and everything good around him, so seeing him struggle with his feelings and with his actions towards Mina was interesting. I feel like by the end of the book a lot of the things he believed in regarding himself and the world in general were put under a microscope and examined really well, and I feel like that will help him grow a lot as a character. I feel like he needed that.

Mina is one of those characters that manage to somehow  break my heart a little bit. She had a tough life and when I got near the end of the story, the irony of it all wasn't lost on me. I would want to explore her world more, since something that happened at the end was quite... strange and something that doesn't make sense. It kind of broke the rules, so to speak, but in a good way.

I have to say though, I would have loved it if the book explored the reasons for Luke's reaction towards Mina. Maybe it will be explored later on, as the series explores other characters, but it would be interesting to know why his instincts told him he needed to protect her, and why he reacted the way he did in certain situations.

All in all, a good start to a new paranormal series and I am very anxious to read the next book in the series.

Cover Reveal: The Great Pursuit by Wendy Higgins

GUYS GUYS GUYS!!!!! I have a great cover to share with you!

I'm very happy to share with you the cover for The Great Pursuit by the awesometastic Wendy Higgins. This book is the sequel to The Great Hunt, and also final book in the Eurona Duology. Here it is:

Book Blurb:

Lochlanach has traded the great beast for something far more terrible, a Lashed enemy veiled in beauty, deception, and a vengeance passed down through generations: Rozaria Rocato. And she’s offering the hunter Paxton Seabolt power and acceptance he could never receive in his homeland. Pax must decide how far he’s willing to go under her tutelage, knowing she is the opponent of Princess Aerity Lochson.

In a land where traditionalists dread change, the Lochlan throne must contend with mysterious foes and traitors, while attempting to keep revolt at bay. As dire circumstances strike the royal family, matters of the castle are left in Aerity’s hands. It's time to put aside her fears and grasp the reign, taking actions that have the potential to save or destroy her people.

One hunt has ended, but the pursuit for love and justice continue. In this sequel to The Great Hunt from New York Times bestselling author Wendy Higgins, political intrigue and romance intensify in another thrilling fantasy. Princess Aerity embraces a quest for identity and passion before making the ultimate sacrifice for her kingdom.

Isn't it awesome?? I absolutely love it. In addition to this cover gorgeousness, The Great Hunt ebook is currently on sale for $3.99. So grab it on Kindle and/or Nook before the sale ends.

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